Written in 1957, this paper was Jay Haley’s first attempt to organize his impressions of Milton Erickson. The article captures the essence of Erickson: the man, his early concepts of the trance state, his flexibility in trance induction, and his delight in working with those considered “resistant subjects.” In this early paper, Jay Haley clearly recognizes Erickson’s potential impact on therapy and clinicians around the world. This paper reminds readers of the importance of therapeutic relationship and the power of effective communication.
Category: Abstracts
Discussions on Hypnosis and Schizophrenia
A classic paper in intellect and argument, this article contains a transcript of a conversation between Jay Haley, John Weakland, and Milton Erickson as they discuss the role of communication in hypnosis and schizophrenia. In 1955, schizophrenia was considered primarily a psychological disorder. Whereas today schizophrenia is mostly considered a biological disorder, this very early, unpublished paper still gives much food for thought and a further glimpse into Haley and Erickson’s thinking and intellect at a fervent time in schizophrenia research.
An Interactional Explanation of Hypnosis
In this paper, the author offers what he sees as a new approach to understanding or defining hypnosis. Drawing from his work with Gregory Bateson, John Weakland, Don Jackson, and Bill Fry, Haley emphasizes the relational communicative aspect of trance. Noting the inherent difficulty of studying subjective experience, Haley highlights again the importance of communication and the therapist-patient relationship.
Jay Haley’s Supervision of a Case of Dissociative
This is a transcript of a supervision session with a young therapist caught in the complex world of a woman with multiple personality. Occurring very early in the written literature about treating multiple personalities, the highlight of this paper is the supervision style and technique of Jay Haley. His approach to supervision will make the reader wish that he or she could be in the room during this session.
Autohypnosis and Trance Dance in Bali
A masterpiece of historical importance, this paper recounts Jay and Madeleine Haley’s trip to Bali nearly 50 years after Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead first went there. The Haleys met several of the same individuals who greeted Bateson and Mead and made a film they entitled “Dance and Trance of Balinese Children.” This is a fascinating document of a culture and society so different from our own and the technique of dance and trance used to regulate emotion and violence.
Hypnotic Seminar
In this transcription of a lecture given in 2000, Jay Haley begins by answering the question, “What is hypnosis?” Haley reviews the circumstances of Gregory Bateson encouraging him to meet with Milton Erickson to discuss the history of hypnosis and the paradoxical nature of trance induction. Haley expresses many original thoughts about multiple personalities, regression to past lives, and how to handle memories that historically may be false. Sophisticated and subtle, this is Haley at his best.
A Hypnotic Analogue of Clinical Confabulation
Confabulation—fabricated or distorted memories about oneself—occurs in many disorders, but there is no reliable technique for investigating it in the laboratory. The authors used hypnosis to model clinical confabulation by giving subjects a suggestion for either (a) amnesia for everything that had happened since they started university, (b) amnesia for university plus an instruction to fill in memory gaps, or (c) confusion about the temporal order of university events. They then indexed different types of memory on a confabulation battery. The amnesia suggestion produced the most confabulation, especially for personal semantic information. Notably, subjects confabulated by making temporal confusions. The authors discuss the theoretical implications of this first attempt to model clinical confabulation and the potential utility of such analogues.
Correlates of the Multidimensional Construct of Hypnotizability: Paranormal Belief, Fantasy Proneness, Magical Ideation, and Dissociation
Hypnotizability is a multifaceted construct that may relate to multiple aspects of personality and beliefs. This study sought to address 4 known correlates of hypnotizability to aid in its understanding. Eighty undergraduates completed the Magical Ideation Scale (MIS), the Creative Experiences Questionnaire (CEQ), the Australian Sheep-Goat Scale (ASGS), and the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) and then were administered the Creative Imagination Scale (CIS). All 5 scales were significantly correlated. Participants higher in hypnotizability scored higher on the CEQ and the MIS. The findings demonstrate the influence of fantasy proneness and magical thinking on hypnotizability and support the theory that hypnotizability is a complex interaction of multiple traits.
Preferences for Descriptors of Hypnosis: The International Point of View
Despite the apparently definitive findings of the Christensen (2005) survey of published members of the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis (SCEH), disagreement about which term best describes the capacity to experience hypnosis and theoretical preference has continued. SCEH, although international, represents primarily North Americans. Preferences of international clinicians and researchers were inadequately represented, so the authors surveyed preferences from attendees of the International Congress of the International Society of Hypnosis in 2012 in Bremen, Germany. The term trance, translated as trance capacity or trance ability for this study, was overwhelmingly preferred over the other options. Hypnosis was recognized as an identifiable state by 88.46% of respondents, whereas only 11.54% viewed it as a sociocognitive phenomenon (role-play, expectancy, etc.).
Methylphenidate Facilitates Hypnotizability in Adults With ADHD: A Naturalistic Cohort Study
Impaired attention may impede learning of adaptive skills in ADHD. While manipulations that reduce competition between attentional processes, including hypnosis, could boost learning, their feasibility in ADHD is unknown. Because hypnotic phenomena rely on attentional mechanisms, the authors aimed to assess whether stimulants could enhance hypnotizability in ADHD. In the current study, stimulant-naïve patients seeking treatment for ADHD-related symptoms were assessed with the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale (SHSS) at baseline and during methylphenidate treatment. Methylphenidate dose and SHSS increase were negatively correlated with baseline SHSS scores. Upon reaching effective doses, mean SHSS scores increased significantly. All patients who had been poorly hypnotizable at baseline demonstrated moderate-to-high hypnotizability at follow-up. The data support methylphenidate enhancement of hypnotizability in ADHD, thus highlighting novel treatment approaches for this disabling disorder.